Water-tight, sanitary floor for cars and similar structures.



J. E. MEEK. WATER TIGHT, SANITARY FLOOR FOR CARS AND SIMILAR STRUCTURES.APPLIGATION FILED 11011.16, 1912.

Patented Mar. 24, 1914 TED sTATEs PATENT oEEroE.

JOHN MEEK, 0F NEW YORK, N. Y., ASSIGNOR TO H. W. JOHNS-MANVILLE COMPANY,A CORPORATION OF NEW YORK.

y Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Mar.. 24, 1914.

Application filed Noyember 16, 1912. Serial No. 731,786.

To 61N who-m 'it may concern.'

Be it known that.' I, J oHN E. MEER, a citizen of the lnited States ofAmerica, residing at N ew York city, county and State of New York, haveinvented certa-in new and useful Improvement-s in Vater-Tight, SanitaryFloors for Cars and Similar Structures, of which the following is aspecification.

My invention relates to built up structures suitable for serving assurfacing for floors and the like and comprises a tough, water tightcomposite structure particularly adapted to serve as a flc-orcoveringfor refrigerator, pre-duce, dairy, beef, express, or passenger cars,etc., which would otherwise tend to rot rapidly from the effects ofaccumulated moisture.

The best. form of construction embodying my invention at present knownto me is shown in the accompanying sheet. of drawing, in which,

yFigure 1 is a detail cross section through a part of the floor and oneside of a. car provided with my improved floor covering. F ig. 2 is anenlarged detail cross section of said floor covering, and Fig. 3 is adiagram in plan showing` the expansion joints.

Throughout the drawings like reference characters indicate like parts.

l is a sill, 2 the top floor board, and 3 the inner side lining of acar, and 4 represents one of the holsters supporting same. As shown` thelowest course of the'inner lining 3, of plank is removed, and the loweredge of the lining undercutas at 5. -Under this are inserted andsecurely fastened courses of flexible fabric and asbestos or otherinsulating felts, as well as the waterproofing compound which covers thelower portion of the walls and stretches across the floor of the car,forming a partially flexible waterproof fabric 6. This floor coveringr 6is built up of asphalt or bituminous mastic. layers of textile fabric,asbestos or other saturated felts and a skeleton metallic reinforcementsuch as expanded metal or other suitable'material, to produce a. hard,tough, waterproof and water tight sheet that will not crack or leakunder the severest conditions of use.

Preferably, as shown in Fig. 2,' the structure is built up of a layer 7,of waterproofing cement, usually Trinidad asphalt or bituminous product,a sheet 8 of asbestos or other felt, saturated if desired with asphaltor other bituminous composition, another layer of the same cement 9, alayer of textile fabric 10 such as burlap which may be saturated with abituminous compound, another layer 11 of cement and another layer l2ofthe textile material, followed by a layer 18A Asand which produces ahard surface on which racks may be laid without indenting it.Preferablyl insert in the layer of mastic 15, one or more strips 16 ofbitumen of a consistence different from that of the mastic, and muchmore elastic. Preferably I arrange these lengthwise and crcsswise of thefloor, as shown in the diagram, F ig. 3, and make them tapering in crosssection, as shown in Figs. l and 2. These form -expansion joints withthe layer of mastic and permit it to twist with the twisting of the carfloor when running over an uneven track, and also permit the mastic toexpand or contract slightly without cracking. The structure so producedis tough and will not crack with the twisting of the car body. Watertight and protects the sills and stringers of the car beneath it fromthe rotting effects of water produced by melting ice, etc. It has a hardfinished surface which can be swept and scoured, and has the sanitarycurve at the corners so that no filth can escape the cleansing actionwhen the hose is turned on for washing out the car and the broom orscrubbing brush is plied.

Having, therefore, described my invention, I claim: f

1. A hard, but flexible waterproof covering for floors of railroad carsand the like comprising in combination a bottom layer of cement, a toplayer of hard vmastic containing a metal reinforcement embedded therein,and an intermediate layer of fibrous fabric saturated with bituminous.material 2. A floor covering for railroad cars and the like comprisingin combination a bottom layer of bituminous ce1nent.'a top layer of hardmastic, with strips of elastic bitumen It is` yinset therein, and anintermediate layer of panels, l:ind an intermediate layer comprisfabricsaturated-With bituminous material. ing asbes'tos fabric saturated withbitumi- 1U 3, A floor covering for railroad cars and nous materials.

the like comprising in combination a bottom 5 layer of bituminouscement, a top layer composed of panels of hard mastic with a skele-Wvitnesses: ton metal reinforcement 'embedded therein H. SWARDELL, andstrips of elasticbitumen between said GEORGE A. NicoL.

JOHN EMORY MEEK.

